Find a 'Negro' at the Republican National Convention—Twitter Will Help!

There are some places where you just don’t expect to see black folks in the mix. (I know, I know, but it’s true.) I don’t tune into the winter Olympics, for example, anticipating a plethora of brown faces and I surely don’t watch rodeos or Riverdance shows willing to place a bet on my certainty of seeing many, if any, of my people. Diversity is making inroads many a place, but there are still largely unchartered areas. The Republican National Convention is another one of them.

In the spirit of scant African-American-ness, comedian and author Baratunde Thurston has made fun sport of on-site “#negrospotting” at the RNC and morphed it into a hashtag that has built a groundswell on Twitter. Some people find it offensive, I’m sure, but I think it’s hilarious. Then again, I think Baratunde Thurston, who wrote the handy dandy book How to Be Black, is pretty funny period.

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But c’mon, all political correctness aside: besides Mia Love and Herman Cain, can you name 10 black folks you just know are going to be there? Black culture is not going to be well-represented at this shindig, ladies and gents. And that’s OK. The show is going on, sparse instances of #negrospotting and all.

At press time, Thurston’s count was up to 237, with an estimated 60 of them actual GOP (say whaaaat?). But BET has a tent there, which Thurston said might’ve inflated the numbers. The Twitterati is getting in on the action but actual sightings are pretty few and far between. To kill time in between new spotting, folks are making sport of the idea: “If anyone is playing @baratunde's #NegroSpotting as a drinking game - they are assuredly okay to drive,” tweeted one follower.